NCAA Goin' Ham in Knoxville

Let's connect the NCAA investigative dots, shall we?


First, Lane Kiffin. Used Knoxville as a trampoline to vault himself into sunny LA. In his wake however was more than a stench of smoldering Tempur-pedics, the NCAA was long sick of his...ahem!...shenanigans and was ready to knock on doors and pore through files. Now it looks like KiffyBaby's successor will be left with casualties, but nothing insurmountable.

The violations outlined in the NCAA’s report could end up costing the Vols some recruiting visits, limit who goes out on the road during contact periods and maybe even dock them a scholarship or two, although precedent in similar cases suggests scholarship reductions probably won’t be one of the penalties handed down by the NCAA.

But the more serious charge of failure to monitor was slapped on Kiffin … and not Tennessee.

For Dooley and the current team, that’s a huge win. 

Then there's Bruce. His fate appears to have been sealed by his own belligerence.  

The worst of it all is that after being caught, Pearl didn't stop breaking rules. His press conference where he tearfully apologized for his transgressions happened on September 10, 2010. The Notice of Allegations documents that Pearl and Jones made improper contact with a recruit on September 14, 2010. Just four days after getting formally busted and having a heap of sanctions put on his program, Pearl was back out there violating bylaws again.

Given that fact, I can't see how Pearl will make it through this whole process and still be employed by Tennessee. He's not just a rule breaker, but a committed rule breaker who kept doing it after being caught. If Pearl can survive this, how can anyone take any kind of ethics code at UT seriously?

Pearl was tarnished by his own misdeeds. Kiffin may have hung himself with a rope as long as I-40. But it was another who cracked open the oyster. There's a third party that supplied the idiot boy with the hemp.


Mike Hamilton, you make Dave Braine look like he actually had one.